I have two DVR's at the moment: Pioneer DVR-533HS and a Toshiba RDXS34. I'm trying them both out and I'll keep the better of the two. I got both for about the same price and both have good and bad points.

Pioneer over Toshiba:
-quieter operation (no fan), although the hard drive is louder.
-One button for manual recording with a set time (TV doesn't have to be on).
-Less obtrusive looking (Toshiba has some bright blue lights on the front that distract)


Toshiba over Pioneer:
-Toshiba has a 160 GB hard drive (pioneer - 80 GB)
-menu's are alittle less clunky
-EPG works (Pioneer's contract with Gemstar expired end of 2005, and hasn't been renewed)

At the moment I'm still undecided. If anyone has some insight into which machine might be better, I'd appreciate hearing it.

Haven't tried the Tosh. or indeed the Pioneer 533 but I have the Pioneer 530-Hs which has a 160Gb HDD, multiple modes of recording stretching the HDD upto 400+hrs, a working EPG (mid Mar'06), Videoplus, quick record etc, decent editing facilities blar blar. Don't know about Tosh. menus so can't comment but on the Pioneer you only really use 3. Program setup via EPG etc. View/delete/edit/copy which is simple and effective and view future recording which allows you to alter frequency, quality etc. Quick, simple and effective.. oh plus you can usually watch whatever is on TV at the time in a small box or watch what you have recorded (again in a small box). Received rave reviews end of last year and that was the 433, the 530 and 630 are just bigger disks.
It is probably the best buy I have made in the last year and has transformed the way I watch programs. Bought it for £300 from John Lewis with a 2yr guarantee.